Montesquiou-Fezensac
Slim Aarons · 1957
From € 250.00 Including VAT
About this work
Montesquiou-Fezensac, Neuilly 1957
The duchess sits on an upholstered settee with a curved back, in a strapless red taffeta gown that fans out across the seat, with long white gloves and a string of pearls. Behind her a tapestry with a peacock, a camel and figures between columns covers the whole wall. Two lamps on small cabinets flank her; on the low table stand a porcelain dog and a vase of flowers.
In 1957 Slim Aarons photographed the Duchess of Montesquiou-Fezensac in the drawing room of her château in Neuilly. The arrangement is strictly symmetrical: two cabinets, two lamps, the settee exactly in the middle. Within that frame the gown is the only thing that moves. The red of the taffeta picks up the red accents in the tapestry and brings them forward, so the woman seems to step out of the wall rather than sit in front of it.
- Photographer
- Slim Aarons
- Collection
- Slim Aarons
- Country
- France
- Year
- 1957
- Reference
- 51246702
The photographer
Photographing attractive people who were doing attractive things in attractive places.
George Allen Aarons, born in New York, served as a military photographer in World War II and subsequently transitioned to print journalism. Whereas he previously documented the war, he deliberately chose the opposite subject: the leisure time of the rich and famous, in breathtaking settings.
His most famous photograph, The Kings of Hollywood (1957), encapsulates what he sought in all his portraits: glamour, charisma, and celebrity, captured in a relaxed manner.
Aarons won the trust of the people he photographed, thereby gaining access to some of the most intimate and candid portraits of the twentieth century. In 2007, Getty Images published the book Poolside With Slim Aarons , crowning his legacy.
- Born October 29, 1916 , New York
- Died May 29, 2006 , Montrose, NY
- Hulton Archive / Getty Images
